A social media post uploaded by Mumbai commuters accused the woman of child theft only because the infant was fairer than she

GRP officers said they had registered a case of a suspected child theft in July, when commuters of a CSMT-Panvel local train had approached them.(HT)

The Wadala Government Railway Police (GRP) kept a 32-year-old woman away from her baby for three months.

Reason: A social media post uploaded by commuters accused the woman of child theft only because the infant was fairer than she.

Finally, a DNA test proved that the baby was hers.

GRP officers said they had registered a case of a suspected child theft in July, when commuters of a CSMT-Panvel local train had approached them. The commuters had claimed that they saw a woman carrying a newborn who did not seem to be hers as the child was much fairer than the mother.

The commuters had also uploaded a photo of the woman and the crying child on social media.

The post said, “First, she said it was her grandchild and then she started behaving weird as we started questioning her about the mother and the family. Soon, she said she wanted to get down and got down at Chembur. She had earlier said she wanted to get down at Govandi, but she got down before that. We don’t know what happened after that. I clicked some pictures and tweeted to Mumbai Police too.”

The women commuters also said they suspected that something was amiss as the baby was crying loudly when the woman boarded the train, said the police.

Based on these complaints, the police tracked down the woman and took her into custody.

“We put the child in a day care centre and sent the woman to a rescue home in Panvel,” said I B Sarode, senior police inspector of Wadala GRP. They also sent their blood samples for a DNA test and were awaiting the results.

On Monday, the GRP got the report which was positive.

“We had to verify the complaints as the commuters had raised a doubt. Now, it has been proved that the woman is the kid’s mother. We will hand over the child to her only after a mental evaluation,” said Sarode.